Room For Three
by Prime627
Summary: Optimus and Megatron are fighting over Arcee (again), and this time she comes up with a solution.


They clashed. Sword screeched over sword edge, dente were bared, and optics were narrowed and dark. But it wasn't over Energon or over ground that they fought. They fought for the femme watching them with narrowed optics and crossed arms.

"Stand down, Megatron!" Optimus tried to find better footing to throw the warlord back, but he felt like a rhino trying to unbalance an elephant.

"You stand down, _Prime_ ," Megatron sneered and he struggled to throw the Prime off, feeling like a hermit crab trying to lift a rock a hundred times its size and weight above its head.

"ALRIGHT!"

They flinched and blinked at her, the mechs' optics wide as they tilted their helms opposite ways. Arcee pushed them apart as she growled at them. "This is so _stupid_ and _beneath you_!"

Megatron blinked down at her, then blinked at Optimus in confusion. They were fighting as they always had since the beginning of the war. Why was Arcee suddenly ranting now?

She saw his confusion and she bared her denta. "I'm _not_ a prize to be won."

Optimus shuffled his pedes in shame and put his weapons away. He stepped back from Megatron and looked at the bigger silvery mech with round, apologetic optics. Megatron looked away.

Her shoulders dropped as she saw their expressions and she touched their faceplates. "Hey..."

They blinked at her and her grinning faceplates, blush blooming on their own.

"I know what we can do about this..."

 **ooo**

They stared at her small berth. There wasn't room for three on that, but Arcee was still coaxing them closer onto her sheets. Optimus laid down beside her and let her rub his back and shoulders. He sighed, making the loose-fitting sheets flutter under his breath.

Megatron continued to stare. "There's not going to be enough room."

"Do you have any better suggestions?"

Optimus sat up. "I do," he said and he led them to his berth.

They stared at his massive berth. It had soft pillows, at least twelve of them, a quilt over several blankets, and a tattered toy tucked into the sheets. Arcee jumped on it, expecting to be enveloped in Optimus' scent...instead, there was nothing. Clean. Sterile. She whined.

Megatron crawled on after her, followed by Optimus.

"I have not slept in this berth for a long time... Bumblebee used to come in and sleep here with me when he had nightmares, but that was a long time ago." Optimus laid down, pulling Arcee close. Megatron laid down on her other side.

Arcee squirmed between them, squirming underneath the sheets while Megatron and Optimus did the same. Then Optimus kissed her cheek.

Megatron bared his denta and kissed her other cheek, pulling Arcee closer to him. Optimus moved closer, working down her face to her shoulder, his servos petting her arm and her own servo.

The warlord gradually got used to this new thing, tipping his helm as he touched Optimus' helm, making the Prime look up with wide optics.

Megatron watched him for a long time, then he loosened his hold on Arcee. Optimus relaxed and looked down at Arcee, who blinked up curiously.

"If we interface with you, there is a chance that we might kill you."

Straight to the point, painfully blunt. She gulped.

Megatron lowered his face to nuzzle hers. "But we will not."

"Instead, we will construct a three-way bond, which will allow us to interface in the future without fighting over you and eventually snuffing your spark."

Arcee knew about bonding about as much as she knew about human anatomy: enough to get by. Bonding was practically permanent, and it could be traumatic depending on if you bonded with a gladiator instead of a data clerk. Arcee was about to bond with both.

Optimus looked at Megatron, then got up to dim the lights. When he came back, he opened his spark chamber, and Arcee caught sight of her future bondmate's soul.

It was bright blue with whispers of white spider-webbing across the surface. It flickered a bit, pulsing faster and faster as Optimus grew closer. He was nervous. His spark gave it all away.

Megatron knelt in the berth, looking down as he exposed his own spark. It was red, mostly. The Dark Energon shard keeping it alive was gradually seeping through-out the red, choking it out and replacing it with the sick, un-earthly glow.

Arcee gasped and touched the shard, growing sick just by looking at it.

"It keeps me alive," he said, as if he expected her to pull it out. "And it won't interfere with the bonding. It's my spark you want to bond with, not the shard."

Optimus touched Arcee's shoulder, nodding for her to open her chamber.

Arcee was scared. Opening your chamber was risky, especially if you just did it because you were overcharged on High Grade. Bonding was, again, permanent. Arcee could only recall two couples who cut their bonds, and it had been agony for them, she knew. She didn't know if Megatron was good, playing good, or evil. He could easily rip her spark out if he wanted when she exposed it. She couldn't stop him.

But trust was a lesson in bonding. If you opened your spark and practically invited your mate to kill you and he or she _didn't_ , you trusted him or her. A lot.

Arcee opened her spark chamber and she watched the mechs get close. It was blue with a hint of pink fluttering in and out of view. Optimus purred and kissed her cheek, taking Megatron's servo into his own.

"Now comes the part that makes weak mechs cry," Megatron said softly and he looked at Optimus, who mewed in agreement.

Arcee watched as the first band of light connected to her spark, connecting her to Optimus and she got his memories.

 _Orion working for hours, filing and reading and filing and reading...going to the Pits of Kaon with his friend, Jazz, lying to get in since he was not allowed due to his rank in society. Him seeing Megatronus for the first time, talking to him the first time, their first non-business meeting, leading to a slight romance that involved light touches, gentle kisses...and then brutal fights that left Orion dazed and Megatronus apologizing. Orion gave himself to the soon-to-be warlord, finding only pain in return...Orion becoming Optimus Prime through the Matrix, the war reaching its peak, having to listen to Megatron's threats again and again and wondering if he had done something wrong, and the feeling of being little Orion Pax again..._

Tears rolled down Arcee's cheeks, her optics closed, her lips parted in a small, mute sob. Megatron was watching her, tilting his helm. Once Arcee's optics opened, Arcee's spark connected to Optimus', and he reeled back at her memories.

 _Arcee struggling the moment she was born, being too weak, too small. Her sire lost hope for her and her carrier gave her up to a relative who helped her walk, coaxed her to run. She was accepted into the Academy during the war due to her will to survive, and she excelled there. Tailgate grew to be her friend and would have been something more after their (final) mission. Airachnid kept her until the tailend of the war after she killed Tailgate, and Cliffjumper came to rescue her from despair and her tomb only to be ripped from her on Earth..._

Optimus lowered his helm, her sorrow becoming his and vice versa.

Megatron received both memories when it was his turn to bond, tears forming in his optics, but never rolling down his cheeks. He looked at Optimus, at Arcee, and then pulled them close as Arcee received his memories.

 _He was kept in the Pits ever since his carrier left him there. Back then, it was common for orphans to be given up to the Pits. They served as entertainment when they died, and even when they didn't since the survivors were kept as gladiators. Megatron would have been used as a pleasurebot, but he bit anyone that came to him with an erect spike in one servo and a cube of Energon in the other. He fought for his life all his life, and didn't understand why the data clerk clung to him, but he knew that his spark was broken when the data clerk became Prime. And so began the war..._

Arcee clung to the silver mech, twitching softly against his chest. Optimus wrapped his arms around them, stroking their helms and slowly laying down with them. He pulled the sheets around them, tucking the pillows around Arcee so she would feel craddled while Megatron and Optimus gave each other cold stares.

The chill surged over both bonds and both mechs twitched softly, neither liking that feeling. They sighed and looked down at Arcee.

"This crazy idea better work," Megatron said softly, but even as he said it, a surge of affection came over his end of the bond. It made a purr rise from Optimus.

"It will." He reached over and touched his bondmate's servo, then cupped his cheek. "You will see."

Megatron's red optics closed and he laid his helm down on the pillow. "I guess this calls for a truce..."

"It was in the fine print," Optimus said softly as he purred.

"Mm. Tricky Prime."

"No tricks. Tricks are for sparklings. We are mechs."

Megatron fell asleep then, holding Arcee against his chest. Optimus pressed against them, his forehelm resting on Megatron's, breathing in Megatron's exhale, sharing his breath. A small smile played with the corners of their mouths.


End file.
